Installing 2.03 appimage on Linuxmint 17.3 64 bit

• Apr 26, 2016 - 23:47

Hello,
Runs excellent if clicking appimage.
But have installed following little video by someone (to get icons in menus etc). No errors on install.
But do get the following when opening through menu icon:
"Load error - cannot read file %F: unknown type"
Any help or suggestions please.
Thanks
Edit: Forgot to mention - if opening an already saved score it works fine - get no errors - only when using the menu icon.
Also just ran through terminal "/home/xxxx/.local/bin/MuseScore-2.0.3-x86_64.AppImage %F" and get error.
If I run in terminal without the %F on the end it appears to run OK.
Will removing the %F affect anything when running through menu icon if I change the command in the properties of the menu icon?
(What is the %F anyway?)


Comments

You can run it from the Terminal like this:

# This just lauches MuseScore:
/home/xxxx/.local/bin/MuseScore-2.0.3-x86_64.AppImage

Or like this:

# This opens the file "MyScore.mscz" with MuseScore:
/home/xxxx/.local/bin/MuseScore-2.0.3-x86_64.AppImage  MyScore.mscz

"%F" has no special meaning on the Terminal, so MuseScore will look for a file called "%F" and it won't find one.

However, when "%F" is used in a desktop file on a system that obeys the freedesktop.org Desktop Entry Specification then it has a special meaning. On standards-compliant systems "%F" is a special code that gets replaced with a file name if you try to run the program by clicking on an existing file in your file manager. If MuseScore is not launching correctly from your Applications Menu then either (1) you have accidentally modified your desktop file, or (2) your system is not obeying the FreeDesktop.org standard and you should report a bug to your distribution.

To confirm it's not (1) please run this command and paste the output in your reply:

cat  /home/xxxx/.local/share/applications/mscore-portable.desktop

Obviously, you must replace "xxx" in the command with your username, and don't forget to remove your username from the output before you post the reply.

In reply to by shoogle

Thanks Shoogle,
The output is:

e-portable.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.1
Name=MuseScore 2 Portable AppImage
GenericName=Music notation
GenericName[de]=Notensatz
GenericName[fr]=Notation musicale
Comment=Create, play and print sheet music
Comment[ru]=Визуальный редактор нотных партитур
Comment[fr]=Gravure de partitions musicales
Exec=/home/xxxx/.local/bin/MuseScore-2.0.3-x86_64.AppImage %F
Icon=mscore-portable
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Qt;Audio;Sequencer;Midi;AudioVideoEditing;Music;AudioVideo;
MimeType=application/x-musescore-portable;application/x-musescore-portable+xml;application/vnd.recordare.musicxml-portable;application/vnd.recordare.musicxml-portable+xml;

(I've no idea what all that means - I know a bit about Linux but never really been into the guts of it except the basics - just a happy Linux user.)
I'm thinking if it works OK without the %F I might just remove it and see what happens in the future - like if anything weird starts happening.

In reply to by dave119

That output looks fine, so it's probably a bug with your distribution or desktop manager. You could try searching online to see if others have had related problems. In the meantime, there are a couple of things you can try.

Open the file /home/xxxx/.local/share/applications/mscore-portable.desktop in a text editor

gedit  /home/xxxx/.local/share/applications/mscore-portable.desktop

and try these changes, testing launching MuseScore from the menu and file browser each time:

1. On the "Exec" line, replace "%F" with "%f" (i.e. a lowercase "f"). This might fix the menu problem, and you would still be able to launch MuseScore by clicking on a file in the file browser (but only one at a time now instead of multiple files as you can do with "%F").

2. Remove the "%F" altogether. This will almost certainly solve the menu problem, but you will no longer be able to launch MuseScore by clicking on an MSCZ file in the file browser.

If (2) solves it for you, but you really want to be able to launch from the file browser as well as the menu, then create a second copy of the desktop file and keep "%F" in original and not in the copy. Call the copy "mscore-portable-menu.desktop" and also change its "Name" line to something like:

Name=MuseScore 2 Portable AppImage (menu safe)

In reply to by shoogle

OK, here's the latest:
- with %F get error.
- with%f - all works fine and CAN open multiple scores/files - through the Musescore open file and through my own file manager where I keep the files.
- removing altogether - nothing after "Appimage" - everything works fine - can open single and multiple files through Musescore open menu or through my file manager. Your number 2 above - I can open files through file browser.
So pretty much just removing the %F makes everything all ok.
Might be something to do with the Linuxmint Mate desktop???
So all is good.

In reply to by dave119

Glad it working for you! I'll keep an eye out for this issue on Linux Mint and MATE.
However, a word of caution - it's possible that changes to the program defaults (i.e. which program is used to open MSCZ files) will only take affect after a restart, or next time you install something and the application cache gets rebuilt, so although it appears to be working now without "%F" you might find that it doesn't work in a few days and you have to resort to one of the other solutions I posted.

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